Scimitar Sun Read Online Free

had told Cynthia that when a vital choice was necessary, the mer schooled and presented their question, and “The Voice” was invoked. When the school broke up, every mer knew the decision that had been made, and it was the Trident Holder’s job to enforce that decision. Exactly what “The Voice” was, the Trident Holder could not explain.
    *Broadtail is in his home, but he is busy with hatchlings. He will not be able to see you for maybe five tides.*
    Five tides was more than two days; Cynthia would be halfway to Southaven by then. *I will talk with Quickfin or Tailwalker, then. It is important.*
    *Tailwalker will be happy to see his betrothed!* Chaser signed with a flip of his tail that implied humor. Tailwalker was Broadtail’s eldest offspring, and thus first choice by the community for next Trident Holder. The community had also chosen him to be Cynthia’s husband. Though all knew it was a symbolic joining only, the marriage would unite the landwalkers and the mer in a state of truce for the duration of their wedlock. As such, it was a union of which many did not approve. Cynthia shared the dissent, though for different reasons than most. Because of her symbolic marriage to Tailwalker, the mer forbade her from taking a human husband. This was the root of Cynthia’s familial discontent: Feldrin was not happy with this arrangement at all. The proud Morrgrey was known officially as “The Seamage’s Consort” or “Father of The Heir,” and he detested both titles.
    Cynthia’s heart twisted. She wondered again if that had been the reason he’d left. Feldrin Brelak was a big man, but his pride was even bigger, and his temper was a long time cooling once it was stoked. He had been elated by her pregnancy, but soon their discussions had turned into heated arguments. Feldrin had been adamant that the child should not be born out of wedlock, while Cynthia had argued that he had known the rules of their relationship when he agreed to it. She had thought he understood, but she was wrong. Feldrin had left, taking Orin’s Pride south to Marathia.
    Cynthia pushed the painful memory aside to focus on the issue at hand. One could not be distracted when dealing with the mer.
    *Please take me to Tailwalker,* she signed, and followed Chaser down the reef. She had no trouble keeping up with him; mer were fast, but they still had to swim. Cynthia used the sea itself to move, and could go as fast as she chose to. At the eastern tip of the reef they struck out for open water, and the color shifted to the deep blue of midnight beneath them. The pair of dolphins, Chaser’s charges, swam along with them, occasionally surfacing for air and sending shadows flickering down on them. The southern tip of Carbuncle Shoal lay to the east, but they would not go so far: about a league from Plume Isle a seamount rose from the depths, reaching to within fifteen fathoms of the surface.
    Atop the seamount lay the city of the mer.
    As they neared, Cynthia admired the towering lattice of coral that rose from the undersea mountaintop. This single living structure, a dome more than sixty feet tall, was the equivalent of a terrestrial city’s outer defensive wall. The structure’s complexity and ingenuity never ceased to amaze Cynthia. The coral lattice had taken eons to grow. The mer took very good care of it: grooming it, trimming it, and adding the formidable defensive structures of fire coral and long-spined sea urchins that would dissuade even a sea drake from attempting to breech the wall. Water flowed freely through the structure, but no fish larger than Cynthia’s outstretched hand could fit through the lattice of coral without being torn to shreds or punctured by dozens of venomous spines.
    Chaser and Cynthia dove for the nearest entrance, a long grotto lined with glowing phosphor and defended by two mer warriors bearing lances and short, stabbing tridents. Nets of stinging nettle-weed were tied off to the side, ready to be lowered if